Characteristics of Diadochokinesis in Typically Developing Children and Adults

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of the rate and perceptual judgment of diadochokinesis (DDK) in typically developing children and adults.Methods: Participants were typically developing children aged 2;6 to 9;11 and normal adults. For DDK tasks, they were asked to repeat [p*a], [t*a], [k*a], [p*at*a], and [p*at*ak*a] accurately and quickly with one breath. The number of repetitions per second was measured as DDK rate for each stimuli. The perceptual judgment of DDK were also performed in terms of regularity, rate, and accuracy using a three-point scale.Results: Children showed increases in the number of repetitions per second for all the DDK tasks with age. However, all the children groups between ages 2;6 and 9:11 exhibited significantly slower DDK rates than adults. In the perceptual judgment of DDK tasks, accuracy, rate, and consistency of sequential motion rates using [p*at*a] and [p*at*ak*a] showed statistically significant differences across age groups. Children demonstrated similar accuracy of SMR tasks with adults after age 6;0.Conclusion: This study showed developmental patterns of speech motor skills based on rate, accuracy, and consistency of DDK tasks. This study provides references for assessing speech motor skills related to children with speech difficulties.

Abstracts of the 8th International Conference on Speech Motor Control Groningen, August 2022

“…Several studies on neurotypical adults have shown that SMR tasks are produced faster than AMR tasks (e.g. Jang et al, 2020;Mousavi et al, 2020) . However, a screening of the results summarized in the review paper by Kent, Kim & Chen (2021) seems to indicate that such pattern is not present at all ages.…”

What Do Differences between Alternating and Sequential Diadochokinetic Tasks Tell Us about the Development of Oromotor Skills? An Insight from Childhood to Adulthood

“…DDK performance is usually measured by means of the speech rate [ 2 ], calculated by either counting the number of repeated syllables within a previously fixed interval or by measuring the time needed to repeat a given sequence [ 3 ]. Performance in DDK tasks has been largely tested across different age groups (e.g., in children [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ], in adolescents [ 4 , 6 , 7 , 9 ], in young adults [ 5 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ] and in the elderly [ 10 , 12 , 15 , 16 ]), with the most prominent result showing a gradual increase in the DDK rates from childhood to middle adulthood, followed by decreased rates from late adulthood. Although most DDK studies have commonly centered their discussion on those changes in rate over time, less attention has been paid to the performance pattern arising from the comparison between SMR and AMR tasks across different age groups.…”

“…Although most DDK studies have commonly centered their discussion on those changes in rate over time, less attention has been paid to the performance pattern arising from the comparison between SMR and AMR tasks across different age groups. Additionally, many DDK studies on adults have surprisingly reported faster rates for SMR sequences relative to AMR syllables [ 5 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 17 , 18 ], which is a counterintuitive result since one would rather expect the repetition of a single syllable to reach faster rates.…”

“…Nonetheless, the overall lifespan DDK rate does exhibit the SMR–AMR pattern described above. In children, for example, despite some studies reporting higher SMR rates (e.g., [ 5 , 7 , 33 ]), the reverted pattern is the most prominent in the DDK literature in childhood, with SMR performances yielding lower syllabic rates as compared with AMR tasks [ 4 , 6 , 9 , 31 ]. Concerning the adult data, the main finding across studies seems to be that SMR tasks reach higher syllabic rates compared with AMR tasks [ 5 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 17 , 18 ], even though some other studies report contradicting results for this age group [ 10 , 34 , 35 ].…”

“…In children, for example, despite some studies reporting higher SMR rates (e.g., [ 5 , 7 , 33 ]), the reverted pattern is the most prominent in the DDK literature in childhood, with SMR performances yielding lower syllabic rates as compared with AMR tasks [ 4 , 6 , 9 , 31 ]. Concerning the adult data, the main finding across studies seems to be that SMR tasks reach higher syllabic rates compared with AMR tasks [ 5 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 17 , 18 ], even though some other studies report contradicting results for this age group [ 10 , 34 , 35 ]. Finally, DDK studies on adolescents do not point in any clear direction: half of the studies report lower rates for SMR tasks as compared with the fast repetition of the same syllable (e.g., [ 4 , 9 , 36 ]), whereas the other half finds the opposite pattern [ 6 , 7 ].…”